I Gotsa Challenge For You . . .

For real yo.

Hmm, looking back at what I just wrote, it may be possible that I’ve been watching the X-Games on ESPN for too long. I’m picking up their lexicon. EEP!

Okay, I wouldn’t be challenging you if it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t do it myself. And at this point, I’m so desperate to see it that I’m willing just to see someone else do it. Is that nuts, or what? This can definitely be categorized under “special interests.”

However, this is a very specific special interest. This isn’t a category of general interest; rather, this is a particular thing that I can’t do.

I guess that technically all I’m doing is redelivering a challenge put forth by someone else. But it’s their fault for getting me obsessed. *laughs*

His username is “harley,” and he’s the owner of the site. BTW, this site completely and utterly rocks. I got a link to it somewhere around here on the site itself, I’m pretty sure. *looks and finds it under the BLOGROLL???* WTF?!? *successfully manages not to grind her teeth and jumps onto her dashboard page to fix the location of this link*

Okay, it’s now under “Miscellaneous.” Woot!

*smacks forehead in exasperation*

And I quote:

Hey dudes. By the way, I played the hell out of this game back when it was first released (in one of those slumps when I didn’t have time to update the site daily). The best I’ve gotten is level 81, and the best I’ve seen from screenshots is 82, without using a ripped version of the game.

Four green towers lined up between the road near the bottom there seem to be the key to longevity. Plus there is a small bug in the second to last green tower upgrade. It should be doing 3400 damage but it only does around 1200. This means you don’t want to leave your green towers sitting at the 2nd from max upgrade, because the max tower does 9000. Concentrate on getting one tower from 3rd best to 1st best before working on the next one.

If anyone gets past level 82 screenshot it and post on the forums, cause I wanna see it! =) -harley

Actually, all of the levels of the green towers are screwy as far as what power level they’re supposed to have. The only thing that’s right (and good) about them is that their final level is 9000. That’s the most that any of the towers ever get up to.

Now, I’m like harley in that I’ve made it to 81, but no farther. I play this game about oh . . . *thinks* . . . *realizes* . . . *is slightly embarrassed to admit* . . . *decides to tell some kind of approximation of the truth, since the real number is unknown* . . . maybe 16 times a day, on most days. Each game takes approximately 15 minutes or so, for where I get to now; so that’s like 4 hours worth. However, since today is Saturday and I take Saturdays off completely and utterly, that number is *clears throat* . . . somewhat higher. I’m thinking somewhere in the vicinity of around 2 or 3 times that number just listed, and maybe possibly more.

Of course, I could be way off. Since this has reached the quality of “special interest,” it means that I sort of lose track of time when I’m doing it, and I tend to play one game straight after the other.

See, the thing about this game that is so captivating is that it’s not just a game per se, but a series of strategic moves that have to be thought out more and more the longer you play it. Plus, the game’s a bit buggy; so sometimes when you put down a new tower, an old one will sort of just, oh, disappear. Can we say badness?

My solution to this is to try and lay out all of my towers for one section of the course all at one time early on, so that if they do disappear, then I can either:

A. Restart

or

B. Replace

It’s easier to replace a tower that’s only worth 15 points in the currency of the game, than to replace one that you’ve spent over 2000 points on, and that has a damage level worth 6000 plus.

Of course, then the whole thing is when you finish a game and restart, what you’re really doing is playing the same game over again, but with a certain level of tweaking in place that will hopefully push you just that much further.

Not only that, but it’s not only the layout that you have to be concerned with; it’s also the order of the towers as they’re put down. I’ve gotten to level 81 twice with largely similar designs. Now I’m trying out something slightly different, but as of yet I’ve only gotten to level 77. EDIT – (32 minutes after I posted this, I reached level 80 with my new-ish configuration! Woot! Challenge is still on though.) If that doesn’t pan out, then I’ll try something different. But I’m not as of yet convinced that the method I’m trying out currently won’t work. I just don’t think I’ve gotten the order down entirely. And I’m still making minor changes with the layout.

Heh, I feel like I’m Ken Mattingly in Apollo 13 while he’s trying to get the correct landing sequence together.

What I really like about this game is that it’s fairly simple. Everything that I’ve just mentioned above has to be thought about, but beyond that, there’s not much to it. It’s a simple layout; what you see is what you’ve got. Minus the bug of the disappearing towers (sounds like an “Encyclopedia Brown” story), there are no hidden dangers.

Like I said; these formats are pretty similar. The difference comes at the end, when I’m out of thinking time and I just start adding red towers at random. lol. Well, I say random, but I don’t really have a “random” switch exactly. To me, random means “without thinking.” Well, there have been very few times in my life when I have done something with no thought behind it. There’s almost always thought; some people may not think so, but there is. It’s just that usually my level of thinking is either too complex for what the situation warrants, or not complex enough.

However, in this case, it’s as close to random as I’m likely to get, at least for me.

So I’ve challenged you now. But there’s more!

This is the fun part. I’m going to have to rely on the honor code for this, but I’m hoping that you will be honest anyways. Whomever does this first gets a prize . . . provided that they want it. *laughs*

“Look ma! No hands!”

Wait. *shoots a sideways glance at the invisible camera still filming her* Where’d that come from???

***I want a screenshot of your results, along with the time that it took you to make it happen. Also, I want a description of how you came up with that result and your thought process behind it. This is to ensure that you really did what you said you did. I know, I know. Someone could lie and all that . . . well, at least this will make sure that they have to spend some time and effort in the process. Muahahahaha.

Here’s the prize: The first person to do this will win a hand-crafted, entirely bizarre, semi-random and completely wacky mixed CD chock full of a wide selection of my [at-times] nearly bipolar musical interests!

Sound fun? All I’ll need is some kind of address to mail it to you. And since WordPress requires an email address to post anything here, you don’t even have to post the addy for all the public to see. I can just email you and you can email me back! Woot!

8 Responses to “I Gotsa Challenge For You . . .”

Here we go. Strategy’s simple, I guess; maximize the amount of path each tower has in its range. The fact that the tower will target the first enemy in the line if at all possible could add some complications, but I don’t know what they might be.

Quote of the month, year or galactic standard week (whichever comes first):

"To be 'sociable' - to talk merely because convention forbids silence, to rub against one another in order to create the illusion of intimacy and contact: what an example of la condition humaine. Exhausting, naturally, like any improper use of our spiritual resources. In miniature, one of the many ways in which mankind successfully acts as its own scourge--in the hell of spiritual death." - Dag Hammarskjöld; translated from Swedish by Leif Sjöberg & W.H. Auden.